With the advent of gravitational wave astronomy, previously
inaccessible new physics may enter the realm of detectability.
In this talk, I will describe several avenues through which new physics
may leave imprints in gravitational wave detectors. First,
ultralight scalar and vector degrees of freedom trigger the superradiance
process around spinning black holes, leaving smoking-gun signatures in
both emitted gravitational waves and black hole population properties.
Second, inspiraling dark compact objects may produce unqiue gravitational
waveforms that may be distinguishable from those of binary black holes
and neutron stars. Lastly, black hole mimickers are able to produce
gravitational wave bursts in the ringdown phase possibly rendering
high-energy physics experimentally accessible.